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Stories told by Śrīla Prabhupāda
<< 28 An old man who is addicted to sinful activity >>
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| Now, we shall read the story…this is a very nice story. Everyone here knows the story of Ajamila and how he was saved from the Yamadutas when he chanted the holy name. And this is a very similar story, but it is even showing greater mercy. In the Puranas, there is a story of an old man who is addicted to sinful activity. He was a very cruel person. But when he was on his deathbed, at the last minute he had a change of heart. He said: “Well, why not try it now, all my life I’ve seen these vaishnavas chanting Hare Krishna. I’m going to die anyway, so let me try it now.” So he called his servant and told him: “Go to the market place and purchase some of those japa mala beads.” And the servant was very surprised: “You want japa mala? What you’ll be going to do with them?” Because everything the servant had ever seen was that this man was interested in sense gratification and he was always criticizing the saintly persons, so he was very surprised. “What do you want japa mala for?” The old man said: “I am going to chant Hare Krishna. Let me give it a try.” So the servant went to the market place and he was looking around and he finally found the place where he could buy japa mala and he argued about the price and finally got some nice japa mala for cheap price and he came back to the house and found the old man had died. The old man was already dead. He died while the servant was in the market place.
| | At that time the Yamadutas came and they were just like in the story of Ajamila – they had their rope and they were just going to rope the old man’s subtle body when suddenly the Visnudutas appeared. And the Yamadutas said: “Now, we remember the last time with Ajamila when you came, but you must understand this man he was so sinful and he did not chant the holy name, so now we will take him.” And the Visnudutas said: “No, we have come to take this man back to Godhead simply because he had a desire to chant Hare Krishna.” So how strong the holy name is.
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